Staff Writer

From what i've heard Captain Marvel is gonna stick around for a bit, even with sales the way they are. I don't think Marvel thought some of these series would sell as well as their male counterparts. At least Marvel is trying different things

Staff Writer

From what i've heard Captain Marvel is gonna stick around for a bit, even with sales the way they are. I don't think Marvel thought some of these series would sell as well as their male counterparts. At least Marvel is trying different things

Not a Kardashian

I don't know if any of these titles qualify as something different, but I am happy Marvel has stuck with them for this long. I just wouldn't be surprised on any given month if they are cancelled. Marvel actually put a fair amount of promotion behind Fearless Defenders and I would have to assume they were expecting stronger sales than what they are getting. With the dreadful sales all of these titles have, I don't think Marvel will be jumping at the chance to put out a female solo book anytime soon. Hopefully the X-Men can turn this all around.

Not a Kardashian

I don't know if any of these titles qualify as something different, but I am happy Marvel has stuck with them for this long. I just wouldn't be surprised on any given month if they are cancelled. Marvel actually put a fair amount of promotion behind Fearless Defenders and I would have to assume they were expecting stronger sales than what they are getting. With the dreadful sales all of these titles have, I don't think Marvel will be jumping at the chance to put out a female solo book anytime soon. Hopefully the X-Men can turn this all around.

Staff Writer

These numbers are worse than I thought they would end up being. Despite Marvel's output making up for 2/5ths of the market last month, its; Female Centric books only had 107,293 orders, making a ghastly 1.6% of what was on the shelves last months. Not to underplay the unfortunate implications on the lines of Gender, it's only one part of a sobering tale

Of the 54 Marvel Books that made the Top 100, Fearless Defenders is one of only connected to a movie property or isn't a Big Event Book with the other property being Nova which clocked in #51 with 40,548 orders

Of the 36 DC books in the Top 100, 14 are not connected to a Movie Property, but only 6 are not connected a major franchise (in turn, if you want to use that qualifier for Marvel, the number would go up to 4 (the two Deadpool Releases and possibly 7 if you count Guardians of the Galaxy and Age of Ultron)

Finally....

Of the Top 100 books that were ordered in April....

14 of them star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 25 or less years ago in a non team setting.

11 of then star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 10 or less years ago in a non-team setting.

8 of them star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 5 or less years ago in a non-team setting.

The numbers get even worse when you add the "not already a major property in aanother storytelling medium" qualifier to the mix, and become non-existent when you take out the "name creator" qualifier. I think we all understand that newer properties in any storytelling medium have a harder time making headway than established ones, but comics have the unfortunate burden of nursing a distribution model that doesn't cast an inclusive of enough net to bring in enough readers that it hard for Big 2 comics that aren't linked to a character, team or property that strikes up feelings of nostalgia to make those comics successful.

If Comics are serious about truly going after new readers, then it has to build a new distribution model. The odds of the old one generating a growing customer base are as close to zero as zero an be.

Staff Writer

These numbers are worse than I thought they would end up being. Despite Marvel's output making up for 2/5ths of the market last month, its; Female Centric books only had 107,293 orders, making a ghastly 1.6% of what was on the shelves last months. Not to underplay the unfortunate implications on the lines of Gender, it's only one part of a sobering tale

Of the 54 Marvel Books that made the Top 100, Fearless Defenders is one of only connected to a movie property or isn't a Big Event Book with the other property being Nova which clocked in #51 with 40,548 orders

Of the 36 DC books in the Top 100, 14 are not connected to a Movie Property, but only 6 are not connected a major franchise (in turn, if you want to use that qualifier for Marvel, the number would go up to 4 (the two Deadpool Releases and possibly 7 if you count Guardians of the Galaxy and Age of Ultron)

Finally....

Of the Top 100 books that were ordered in April....

14 of them star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 25 or less years ago in a non team setting.

11 of then star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 10 or less years ago in a non-team setting.

8 of them star non-legacy characters that had their debut in comics 5 or less years ago in a non-team setting.

The numbers get even worse when you add the "not already a major property in aanother storytelling medium" qualifier to the mix, and become non-existent when you take out the "name creator" qualifier. I think we all understand that newer properties in any storytelling medium have a harder time making headway than established ones, but comics have the unfortunate burden of nursing a distribution model that doesn't cast an inclusive of enough net to bring in enough readers that it hard for Big 2 comics that aren't linked to a character, team or property that strikes up feelings of nostalgia to make those comics successful.

If Comics are serious about truly going after new readers, then it has to build a new distribution model. The odds of the old one generating a growing customer base are as close to zero as zero an be.

Last edited by SilverPhoenix on Sat May 11, 2013 7:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Not a Kardashian

I'm actually grabbing all those titles and have been enjoying them... until I got sick so I've some catching up to do, but really? Are they dying that bad?

I'm buying them all too. I'm enjoying Red She-Hulk the least of all of them. Hopefully X-Men can turn these sales around. I'm really looking forward to that book.

The Old Doctor

by The Old Doctor » Sat May 11, 2013 7:16 pm

GiveWarAChance wrote:I'm buying them all too. I'm enjoying Red She-Hulk the least of all of them. Hopefully X-Men can turn these sales around. I'm really looking forward to that book.

It'd be nice if it did. Shrulky was getting good when I fell behind. Fearless was looking good too and FF is just fun. The X-Women titles are looking nice and as interesting as the rest of the lot... which is looking interesting and good so far to me. Which is saying since the X-Titles flatlined for me in the 90s. Nice art is not enough. Make me like or be interested in the characters folks. Give me good stories. They're doing it to one degree or another of late.

But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

The Old Doctor

GiveWarAChance wrote:I'm buying them all too. I'm enjoying Red She-Hulk the least of all of them. Hopefully X-Men can turn these sales around. I'm really looking forward to that book.

It'd be nice if it did. Shrulky was getting good when I fell behind. Fearless was looking good too and FF is just fun. The X-Women titles are looking nice and as interesting as the rest of the lot... which is looking interesting and good so far to me. Which is saying since the X-Titles flatlined for me in the 90s. Nice art is not enough. Make me like or be interested in the characters folks. Give me good stories. They're doing it to one degree or another of late.

But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

Staff Writer

Cat-Scratch wrote:It'd be nice if it did. Shrulky was getting good when I fell behind. Fearless was looking good too and FF is just fun. The X-Women titles are looking nice and as interesting as the rest of the lot... which is looking interesting and good so far to me. Which is saying since the X-Titles flatlined for me in the 90s. Nice art is not enough. Make me like or be interested in the characters folks. Give me good stories. They're doing it to one degree or another of late.

But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

Well, a big part of the problems facing Marvel's females have to do with the fact that the fan base still reading comics are a bunch nostaglia-driven, change adverse not-so-young adult male base (that happens to be white). Remember, when the Industry had a healthy market, it had a constant influx of new readers buying their first comic every day, so while the Icons were always being exposed to new eyes, those eyes were still open-minded enough to give the properties with a lesser-profile a try.

When was the last time we had what could be considered a healthy influx of new readers? Who were the last "new" properties to truly benefit from that influx?

With not enough new readers coming in, and the majority of the fan base remaining that first picked up their first comic in 70s, is there really room for newer or under-utilized characters that don't have a built-in fan base due to a certain name in their title?

Of course, there are other factors, but this definitely one of the bigger ones.

Staff Writer

Cat-Scratch wrote:It'd be nice if it did. Shrulky was getting good when I fell behind. Fearless was looking good too and FF is just fun. The X-Women titles are looking nice and as interesting as the rest of the lot... which is looking interesting and good so far to me. Which is saying since the X-Titles flatlined for me in the 90s. Nice art is not enough. Make me like or be interested in the characters folks. Give me good stories. They're doing it to one degree or another of late.

But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

Well, a big part of the problems facing Marvel's females have to do with the fact that the fan base still reading comics are a bunch nostaglia-driven, change adverse not-so-young adult male base (that happens to be white). Remember, when the Industry had a healthy market, it had a constant influx of new readers buying their first comic every day, so while the Icons were always being exposed to new eyes, those eyes were still open-minded enough to give the properties with a lesser-profile a try.

When was the last time we had what could be considered a healthy influx of new readers? Who were the last "new" properties to truly benefit from that influx?

With not enough new readers coming in, and the majority of the fan base remaining that first picked up their first comic in 70s, is there really room for newer or under-utilized characters that don't have a built-in fan base due to a certain name in their title?

Of course, there are other factors, but this definitely one of the bigger ones.

Motherfucker from Hell

SilverPhoenix wrote:If Comics are serious about truly going after new readers, then it has to build a new distribution model. The odds of the old one generating a growing customer base are as close to zero as zero an be.

I dislike the trades but I think comics getting in mainstream bookstores has helped get new readers a lot!

While I HATE trade waiting and much prefer the floppes, I saw a lot of kids at the high school I taught at reading trades that they either bought or picked up at the school library. In fact the librarian knew I read comics and would ask me what she should get in as they were quite popular with the students. So while the sales may suck of some stuff, I think the availability has been much better in recent years.

Motherfucker from Hell

SilverPhoenix wrote:If Comics are serious about truly going after new readers, then it has to build a new distribution model. The odds of the old one generating a growing customer base are as close to zero as zero an be.

I dislike the trades but I think comics getting in mainstream bookstores has helped get new readers a lot!

While I HATE trade waiting and much prefer the floppes, I saw a lot of kids at the high school I taught at reading trades that they either bought or picked up at the school library. In fact the librarian knew I read comics and would ask me what she should get in as they were quite popular with the students. So while the sales may suck of some stuff, I think the availability has been much better in recent years.

Not a Kardashian

Cat-Scratch wrote:But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

The excuse I'm always told is that guys want to read stories about other guys so they can relate to it better. When you have a predominately male fan base, you have to cater to it. It's the same reason why in video games they feel they can't sell a game with a women on the cover(Mass Effect & Bioshock: Infinite). When there's a create a character mode, the guys generally create male characters.

SilverPhoenix is dead on about the nostaglia-driven fan base too. People just want to read the same old shit. People don't want to support any new characters.

Not a Kardashian

Cat-Scratch wrote:But what is it that's killing them? Guys only want to see guys? What happened to being horny sexist pigs that want half nekkid women adventuring around?

The excuse I'm always told is that guys want to read stories about other guys so they can relate to it better. When you have a predominately male fan base, you have to cater to it. It's the same reason why in video games they feel they can't sell a game with a women on the cover(Mass Effect & Bioshock: Infinite). When there's a create a character mode, the guys generally create male characters.

SilverPhoenix is dead on about the nostaglia-driven fan base too. People just want to read the same old shit. People don't want to support any new characters.